Where Are the Child Therapists?

You would think that the nation is chock-a-block with therapists, especially therapists who specialize in treating children. Apparently, such is not the case. We do not have enough child therapists.

And this does not even consider the question of how good these therapists are. No one raises that issue, so we suspect that the answer would not promote therapy. That is, it would not encourage people to go see therapists.

As for children’s mental health, it has seriously deteriorated over the past couple of years. School shutdowns will do that to you. The insane policies promoted by the teachers’ unions and Democratic politicians, with the connivance of government authorities, damaged the mental health and the cognitive development of far too many American children. Thankfully, some states and cities did not buy into the madness, but still.

Anyway, Jessica Grose has written an article about the fact that we are running short of mental health care.

To her credit, Grose offers some sound and sensible ideas for parents, beginning with the words of one Lisa Damour, who always talks good sense:

While it may be difficult to get a depressed teenager out of bed, good habits matter more than you might think for your child’s mental health, said the psychologist Lisa Damour, the author of “Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls.”

“Though it is not the same as good psychotherapy, don’t underestimate the power of the basics,” she told me. “Making sure your young person is getting enough sleep, they’re getting enough physical activity, they’re eating a balanced diet. If possible, keep them busy with purposeful activities. These things go further than we sometimes expect.”

Also, as a rule, one prefers cognitive behavioral therapy over touchy-feely psycho analytic insight oriented treatments. I cannot vouch for them, but now there are computer programs that parents can use at home.

Grose explains:

There are resources you can use at home, books and online programs, that can help your family. The online resources that come most recommended are often rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (C.B.T.), which “usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns,” according to the A.P.A. Patricia Frazier, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, has, along with colleagues, studied the effects of internet-delivered C.B.T. programs (I.C.B.T.) on university students and found that they were “feasible, acceptable and effective.”

These I.C.B.T. programs tend to be a combination of text, videos and exercises that help explain the roots of anxiety, then encourage users to identify what may be triggering overwhelming feelings, and then offer exercises to help address these feelings. For example, the free app MindShift C.B.T., from the nonprofit Anxiety Canada, allows you to log your daily feelings and then write a short journal entry about the reason behind the feeling. You can also list symptoms you may experience, like racing thoughts, chest tightness or nausea. It gives you a series of tools to use, like guided audio for calm breathing or test anxiety, or “coping cards” that provide affirmations like “Learning to sit with some uncertainty will help me worry less.”

In any case, credit to Grose for highlighting some therapies that really do produce results.